Inaugurated in 1998, the museum route includes the basements, the Gothic halls on the ground floor, the former kitchens, the Lion’s Tower, the Mirror Apartment, and allows visitors to explore fifteen rooms of the Castle, following a path that connects the underground of the Lion’s Tower, with the prisons, to the ground floor and then to the noble floor. This way, visitors retrace the rooms once inhabited by the Dukes, where it is still possible to admire the decorative features, characterized by marble and frescoes. Between 2001 and 2003, the most historically, artistically and architecturally significant rooms were connected by a philological reconstruction with a strong educational impact, designed by architect Gae Aulenti. The visit revolves around four themes, different from each other but related to the Castle: the building as an image of power, the dynasty, the urban history of Ferrara, and finally the Este domains. Since 2006, the Castle has also been the representative seat of the Ermitage Italia project, the result of an agreement between the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg and the Province of Ferrara, aimed at cataloging the Italian works of the Russian museum, with particular attention to the Este heritage. The tour winds through the Gothic Rooms, the Ducal Kitchens, the Cordolo Room adjacent to the original tower which incorporates part of the structure, and Don Giulio’s Prison. On the noble floor is the Aurora Room, located inside the Lion’s Tower, which is part of the private and representative apartments created by the Dukes starting from the second half of the 15th century, along with the Games Room and the Small Games Room. The decoration of the rooms was entrusted to the Filippi family (father Camillo and sons Cesare and Sebastiano), assisted by Leonardo da Brescia and Ludovico Settevecchi: all dateable to the third last decade of the 16th century. Also noteworthy are the “Alabaster Chambers” intended for the ducal collections which included paintings by Titian, Dosso Dossi, and Garofalo grouped according to an iconographic program centered on the theme of the bacchanal and alternated with the sculptures of Antonio Lombardo.
Information on Estense Castle
Piazzetta Castello, 1,
44121 Ferrara (Ferrara)
0532299111
castelloestense@provincia.fe.it
https://www.castelloestense.it
Source: MIBACT
